17.06.11 - Week Two

Found myself really getting stuck into work this week. The upcoming Jodrell Bank gig sold out weeks ago but none of the contractors have been organised and it is my job to do it. Definitely felt like I dived in the deep end. The Project Manager is not in the office and I am reporting to an individual who has been drafted in on a temporary basis to help manage the workload for this particular job.

I've constantly been on the phone getting quotes and sending more emails per day than I ever have before. This has made me organise my inbox carefully so I did not miss or forget about messages.

I was too nervous to make my first call for a quote in the office. Everyone sits round a large table and if there is no conversation, it really feels as though everyone is listening. I was certainly listening to everyones else's calls last week - probably because I didn't have much else to do apart from browse documents from the last decade of the agency's work. I went home for lunch and made my first call for a quote from there. It was not necessarily the calling and asking for a quote which made me nervous, but not knowing exactly what I was after in some cases. I was asked to get 40 meters of trackway to the site and installed for two weeks. There were so many different varieties and I looked into the possibility of purchasing trackway as the price did not seem to dissimilar. After a discussion with the other project assistant on the matter, I hadn't factored the storage and labour cost of handling the trackway and delivering it - it is very heavy duty stuff and a dedicated team can lay it in under an hour, it would take me and a rigger the best part of a day.

After I had made my initial call from home, I felt reassured I would be as clear and confident back in the office.